Vandals Invade Sicily

With a narrow base in the Andalusia area of the Iberian penninsula,
the Vandals were an unlikely candidate for
domination of the central Mediteranean. Nonetheless, in 428, with the
cooperation of a disaffected Roman viceroy, the vandals launched an
11-year campaign leading to the capture and occupation of all the Roman
Empire's provinces in North African. The conquests, however, did not
satisfy the ambitions of their leader Gaiseric. Following his final
victories in North Africa in 439, Gaiseric promptly launched an invasion
of nearby Sicily.

The
Roman forces occupying Sicily were no more effective in their defense
than those in North Africa had been. Soon Gaiseric had added the largest
island of the Mediterranean to his burgeoning empire.

Despite his obvious appetite for expansion, Gaiseric seems to have been
a pragmatic realist as well: in 476 he bought peace with his Italian
neighbors to the north through a canny compromise
over Sicily.